Scientists finally answer if there is a limit to human endurance

Scientists have not only shown that there is a limit to human endurance, but they have even been able to quantify it.

The limit of human endurance found in science

Scientists eventually ended the question of whether there was a limit to human endurance and were even able to assign a ceiling value.

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A new report from the BBC New details the work of scientists who are studying some of the world's most extreme athletes to determine the possible limits of human endurance and reveal that they have actually concluded that there is an ultimate limit to what the human body is able to do.

The research, conducted by scientists from Duke University, examined athletes participating in a 140-day race across the United States for 140 days, as well as the effects of this event on their body. Scientists have measured resting metabolic rate (CMA), or the number of calories that the body burns when it is not active, both before and during the race, as well as the number of calories burned during the event.

The study, published in Progress of science, found that calories burned began to be high before declining over time and stabilizing around 2.5 times the competitor's CMA.

"You can do really intense things for a few days," said Herman Pontzer of Duke University. BBC News, "but if you want to last longer, you must remember it."

For example, running a marathon, just over 26 miles, consumed 15.6 times more calories than one burned by a runner's RMR, but such events usually last only one day. The longer the time, the more you get about 2.5 times the RMR. During the 23-day Tour de France, for example, cyclists burned calories 4.9 times their CMA, and a 95-day trip to Antarctica saw participants burn calories 3.5 times their CMA .

Essentially, the longer the body is going to play, the closer you get to the CMA 2.5 times.

"All data points, for each event, are all mapped onto this magnificent barrier of human endurance," said Pontzer. "No one we know has ever managed to cross it."

What makes the absolute limit 2.5 times the CMA can be related to how the human body digests nutrients and converts food into energy. The researchers found that the human body simply can not digest and process enough food to generate more than 2.5 times the long-term caloric intake CMA. The body can take advantage of other energy reserves initially, which gives it a first slice of calories burned, but once you've burned all the fat and muscle excess, there's only one left caloric, which is ultimately the limit the body can do, wise energy.